ME, NJ, CT, STL, and a Skydiving Story…

This Friday Nov. 11th, I’m giving a 5 pm partial capo workshop then I’m the feature at the Round Top Farm open Mic in Damariscotta. It’ll be months before I play in Maine again, and this room is really warm and yummy. Local? Please come.

Saturday Nov 19th, I’ll play a co-bill with Kevin So at the Hurdy Gurdy in Fairlawn NJ. THAT’s gonna be a good one. See the link here.

The Following Sunday the 20th, Marc Douglas Berardo and I co-bill for Barbara Manners at her Acoustic Celebration series in Ridgefield CT. That link is here.

The BIG news – December 3rd, I’ll perform the Einstein’s Dreams cycle with the Principia College orchestra and choir. It’s in Elsah, Illinois – about an hour from St. Louis. If you’re close by, it’s going to be one hell of a show. You should be there.

Oh yeah, and a tattoo. For years, I’ve toyed with the idea of getting the call sign of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed as a band around my left ankle.

The thought just kept burning a little imprint in a dusty back corner of my noggin for years. Initially, it just felt too fatalistic. I mean, a plane that went down in mid-ocean?

Then, three weeks ago, Michael died. Michael knew for over a decade that his life would be short. He spent the last several years jumping out of airplanes and telling his friends how much they meant to him.

Last weekend I jumped at his drop zone, and cried through freefall – I could feel him there, looking over at me in between glances at his altimeter, then spinning away as he deployed.

I got the international alphanet words for Amelia’s Electra – Kilo, Hotel, Alpha, Quebec, Quebec – in his handwriting, as a reminder that this ride is often shorter than we would have hoped, a reminder to make it count, because it matters more than we know.

A single life ripples for decades, some for centuries. After you’re gone, the people you touched will carry you with them. The people we love, the ones we teach, that we touch with our example or our caring, or just smile at on the street. We simply have no idea.